Easy win for Dindigul against Trichy

Chennai: Dindigul Dragons kept Ruby Trichy Warriors at bay by defeating them by 23 runs on Saturday to keep their campaign alive in the second edition of Tamilnadu PremierLeague. Skipper Ashwin Venkataraman was the star for Dindigul, who registered second victory of the season.

In a must-win, Dindigul Dragons held their head high and batted first after winning the toss. Openers Ganga Sridhar Raju and Subramania Siva did not provide the bestof starts as they fell apart after scoring just 18 runs.

R Jesuraj scalped in-form opener Sridhar Raju and J Kousik made sure than Subramania Siva’s stay at the crease was not long either. Siva scored 19 of 13 balls whichhad two boundaries and one six in it. At the halfway mark, Dindigul had 67 runs on the board for the loss of two wickets.

Skipper Ashwin Venkatraman then took the task of setting a competitive score upon himself and he was lended a very good helping hand by N Jagadeesan and R Vivek. The first of the two partnerships produced 35 much needed runs while the second with Vivek provided 40 runs in a blistering time, taking just 22 deliveries.

Ashwin top-scored for his side with 41 runs while a timely knock by R Vivek saw him scoring a quickfire 32 runs off just 17 balls. But it was Aditya Arun’s violenthitting at the end that took their total to 154 for the loss of seven wickets.

Aditya Arun scored 17 of seven balls. R Jesuraj and M Prabhu of Truchy scalped two batsmen each. Looking to chase a very reasonable target, Trichy got off to a horrible start in their run chase as they lost opener Bharath Shankar in the second over.

Captain Baba Indrajith got out in a iresponsible way as he was stumped for he stepped out of his crease attempting to hit against the spin of MS Sanjay. Trichy struggled to build partnerships as their middle order batsmen Adhithya Giridhar and Nilesh Subramanian fell cheap.

J Kousik scored and Aditya Ganesh played sensible knocks but that was not enough to see Trichy over the ropes. Dindigul bowlers kept picking wickets and forbid Trichy from settling into a rhythm. All the five bowlers picked up at least one wicket with Wilkins Victor and Sunny Kumar Singh getting two apiece.

In another match, Albert Tuti Patriots made it six in a row by winning against VB Thiruvallur Veerans. They were chasing a target of 166 set by Thiruvallur and crossed the line with five balls to spare. Tuti won with six wickets in hand.